Review of Life (2017) by Nelson P — 13 May 2017

LIFE began as a film set to release with the wide assortment of various films coming out in the summer of 2017 at the end of May. However, due to the release of other big name titles such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Alien: Covenant in late May, the time table for its release was moved up to capture both a considerable profit and the imagination of movie goers who had a curious interest in the film but did not want to choose between this and the big Hollywood blockbusters of the season. Also, you know, it was obviously influenced by Ridley Scott's original Alien film so having it compete against it would have been a big mistake.

Our story takes place in the near future, where probes are bringing back samples of what could be (and is) organic material back to an orbiting space station around Earth. On the space station, astronauts and scientist partner together to poke around the organic substance to discover that it's still alive. And intelligent. And strong. And in the beginning, relatively friendly. However, during an accidental procedure, the organism is left in a frozen like state and the scientist attempt to wake it up by prodding at it with an electric sort of space prod. This is where Life finds goes the way of most sci-fi/horror films and begins to systematically dismantle the entire crew of the space station. In what may be some of the most interesting death sequences in space, the film pulls no punches as it has it's friendly little organism turn into the octopus-like creature of doom.

The effects for the creature (and much of the environment itself) are rendered well and it is quite an immersive experience as most films in space tend to be. The quick run time of 103 minutes also keeps the pace heightened as you witness the creature go from one crew member to the other, outsmarting them at ever turn. What I liked about this overly abused concept, is that at no point in time did it feel as if the creature have any advantage over any dumb humans in the film; every person attempted to do the best they could with what they had to work with in a claustrophobic environment with a deadly predator on the hunt for it. I kept thinking to myself even, 'I would have totally died minutes into the film once that thing got on board' and the statement in itself shows the power of the films ability to translate the inevitable fear one would associate with the happenings of the crew. What ultimately weighs the film down is that you have seen this all before, done in better, much more subtle and sometimes grander ways. The cast and crew of Life provide excellent visuals and acting performances from mostly everyone and the director, Daniel Espinosa, does what he can with blatantly copying Alien while sort of creating a small fan film, love letter to it. Albeit a very pretty looking one at that. Great visuals and performances go a very long way fr a film you have seen a zillion times. However, it is definitely worth a watch.